Tag Archives: Republicans

Post navigation

Thanks to the Republicans currently in control of the Federal government, my days as an Independent are waning. My morals are definitely more in alignment with Democrats, despite my heretofore preference for voting the person, not the Party. As the investigation continues into Trump’s involvement with Putin, before and after the election, it’s become increasingly obvious that Republican senators and House representatives have sacrificed American democratic principles for party politics. They are so fixated with their party’s triumvirate power that they seem willing to sacrifice everything in order to hang onto it.

Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, both Republican party leaders, willingly “hold their noses” as they cozy up to Russia’s White House operative, Donald Trump. He who is beholding to Vladimir Putin for whatever wealth the Trump Organization has amassed since New York banks refused Trump loans because he fleeced them of what he owed. Even though he did likewise to a Russian bank, suing it for $3 billion when it pressed for Trump to repay it the $300 + million he’d borrowed. He lost the suit, in which he blamed the bank for his inability to rent apartments in the building he’d constructed with its money. Nonetheless, he was still allowed to borrow from Russian banks. Go figure???

Why is it that Trump can, as he declared, “shoot somebody on 5th Avenue” and still retain the loyalty of his supporters? Trump is constantly blasting his way through our democracy as though he’s using a revolving semi-automatic weapon, and he’s right. His hard core supporters, including McConnell, Ryan and other Republican politicians laugh off Trump’s antics as…Trump being a jokester…or a novice to politics. Even I, who loved to dance in my younger days, couldn’t possibly have shimmied my way beneath the low bar Trump fans have set for him, politically and ethically.

It’s sickening to witness how easily the Washington Republicans fritter away our country’s democratic principles. They’re used like bargaining chips in a game of Russian Roulette. The real losers don’t even have a “seat at the table”…the poor, the old, the uninsurable, the mentally retarded, the handicapped, the seriously ill, Muslims, people of color, women…and the children of today, and tomorrow.

These are not necessarily the constituents who thrive under Republican Party rule. And contrary to what he proclaimed while campaigning, Trump is the millionaires’/ billionaires’ president. It is they who, out of the kindness of their capitalistic heart, will ascertain what the rest of us need and deserve. You know. The “trickle down effect” from the wealthy 1% to the rest of us 99%ers. Oh, lucky days!!!

Who’s kidding who? Didn’t we already try that magic trick? Wasn’t that the mess President Obama began digging us out of beginning in 2009?

Trump has surrounded himself with gophers and yes-people, gold-diggers and power grabbers, ignoramuses and traitors. The last four categories, by the way, applicable to Trump himself.

The thought of Trump already seeking re-election in 2020, while only halfway through his first year with only 30+ percent of support nationwide, is ludicrous. The man is the epitome of narcissism. Physically and intellectually, Trump is so out of his league in the Oval Office. The fact that he is the laughing stock of his own Party, behind his back and behind closed doors, would itself be hilarious. If it weren’t for the fact that real people are getting hurt in Trump’s reality TV farce as president.

And Republican politicians who dogmatically put Party before country are in my opinion…

Trump is the president-elect, selected by Americans who felt disenfranchised from the mainstream populace. They have a right to glory in their achievement; let’s hope their trust is not misplaced.

For those of us who took Trump at his word, the ugly vitriol he bandied about to win at all costs, four years may not be enough to forget. Forgiving may not come easily either.

Why this man felt he had to trample all over the good name of millions of others, including Hillary Clinton and President Obama’s, in order to promote the TRUMP brand is a mystery. Obviously, we will never know. After all, he refuses to reveal the most basic of all presidential precedents…his tax forms.

I am glad millennials are protesting Trump’s victory. He must be held to a very high standard now that he has achieved what no right-thinking American thought was possible, including many of his supporters who agreed that he did not have the right temperament for the job. This generation of Americans must fight for their liberties, just as past generations have had to do. Only then will they realize the urgent need to safeguard what heretofore they might have taken for granted. They could not appreciate what might have been handed to them on a “silver platter.”

Trump is now facing his own “American Spring.” Just as Arab youth rallied to throw off the suppression of decades of dictatorships, the millennials in our country, and their elders, will have to fight to ensure that our democracy is upheld.

So much of Trump’s background remains outside of the general populace’s purview. Most don’t care to know what he brings to the presidency except for what he promised to bring them in the way of economic relief. Hopefully, the tradeoff will have been worth it to them…and to the nation as a whole.

I too wish Trump well as he tries to govern the nation. Although I will never like the man. He has shown himself to be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One cannot exist without the other. A 70-year-old man is unlikely to change the essence of who he is.

It’s been said that Trump is a man who craves approval. Few among us have been able to escape that very human of traits. It might even be seen as a flaw. We will have to see how Trump manages his need for approval. It is a double-edged sword. It can work for us, or against us. It will depend upon whose approval our president-elect requires, ours or that of special interests…like the NRA or Russia.

The millennials have taken up the role as protectors of our democracy and our constitutional rights as Americans. More power to them!

Republicans own the Federal government now. Let’s see how they get on with the business of fulfilling Trump’s promises to working class-whites. He may need the help of Democrats who are more inclined to help the downtrodden. It’ll be interesting.

I do hope, however, that the Democrats pursue Trump’s private life as it affects the office of the presidency…his personal lawsuits…his foreign business connections…his connections to the mafia, and felons accused of drug-trafficking…his proven personal use of charitable donations. Republicans have spent millions of taxpayer dollars pursuing the Clintons for decades. Trump is not exempt from the same treatment.

Liking is as important as loving. Barack Hossein Obama is someone I both loved and liked as a human being and a president. His successor will never have my devotion as a woman, a wife, a mother, a human being, an American.

Trump is totally alien to who I am as a person of morals and compassion. Nonetheless…

Those continuing to protest Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the Democratic party’s candidate for the presidency look and sound like those of the Republican candidate. From what could be seen by way of the media cameras, they were mostly white.

What comes to mind first and foremost is that the opposition is not only directed toward Clinton, but seems to reflect an underlying disdain for Obama.

As the first, black president Obama continues to be held to a higher standard than any occupying the office before him. He is blamed for the unraveling of the Middle East, even though George W. is the one who declared war on Iraq despite being told that there were no weapons of mass destruction as originally claimed. The result? We are now facing the disenfranchised Iraqi military in the form of…Isis.

Further evidence that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise to undermine President Obama’s efforts to succeed is the fact that he is given little, if any, credit for saving the country from another Great Depression. Trump supporters forget that once again, George W. is to blame for that economic fiasco. It looks as though dissatisfied Sanders supporters who promise to vote for Trump, also discard the fact their economic predicament is the fault of a Republican president.

Aside from the decades long, nonstop vendetta directed at Hillary Clinton by the conservative establishment, it is obvious that a majority of her supporters do not fit the typical Republican profile. For the most part, people of color support Hillary’s vision of an inclusive, democratic America.

In a speech before supporters this morning, Sanders’ request that they vote for the Democratic ticket was met with opposition. His call for party unity is falling upon deaf ears. No surprise since Sanders himself doesn’t seem to want to give up his campaign.

Rather than hi-jacking their respective parties, Trump and Sanders should have gone their own way. Even children know, you can’t force…

That’s my advice to Mr. Trump if he tries to fuel his campaign by bringing up Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. Trump will be playing The Man Card. You know. The one that says what’s good for the goose, ain’t in no way applicable to the gander. Men like Trump can philander and have their cake and eat it too. But women who survive a philandering husband have to keep on keeping on…paying for the mistake foisted upon them.

None of us liked what happened, but the Clintons paid dearly…and publicly…for a sin which for me is the worst committed against women. Taking a woman’s sexuality and throwing it back in her face. I’ve crossed many a celebrity off my “favorites list” because of that…Brad Pitt, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson among them.

Of all the dirt the Republicans have attempted to dig up about the Clintons over their decades long, high-profile, very much public life…Trump’s proposed pilloring of Hillary as an enabler…will call into question all women who have found themselves in the same situation. It would be yet another bar set by a white man who talks out of both sides of his mouth. A man who has no qualms about establishing different sets of rules…for men and women, old immigrants and new immigrants, and the bullying tactics of his supporters and those with opposing views.

It’s a credit to Mrs. Clinton that she didn’t bury herself in self pity after the devastating clobbering she took at the time of the president’s affair. Instead, she went on to do what she has done since graduating from law school. Hillary Clinton continued to serve the public, and not in a small, obscure way. She served two terms as New York’s senator AND she fought hard to be president. When she didn’t win, she still didn’t turn her back on America. She went on to serve as Obama’s Secretary of State.

If, and that’s a BIG IF, Hillary doesn’t win this election, she can hold her head up high knowing she’s served her country well. Exceedingly well! It would be our loss not to give this highly-credentialed, principled woman…the first ever…the opportunity to lead us away from a democracy dominated by men. Hillary can tell her grandchildren, she spent her life in service to her country. She held her own against those who would try to bring her down at every turn.

Maybe someday those of us who are accused of enabling our loved ones to do and be all that they can will get our chance in the sun. Out from under…

Looks like the Republicans are getting ready for a knock-down, drag out presidential convention in Cleveland, Ohio this summer.

Trump is the designated people’s nominee, while behind-the-scenes the establishment is scrambling to offer up its own candidate. It might be that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with respect to the sporadic bullying which have broken out at Trump rallies. His cult following is ready to take it to the mat with anyone who gets in the way of their idol, as he takes over the White House…Trump’s own D.C. Miralago.

With Mitch McConnell’s refusal to consider the President’s Supreme Court nominee today, it is apparent that Trump’s followers are spot on in thinking that Washington is broken. As long as established Republicans continue to face off against anyone with whom they disagree, nothing of worth is accomplished. Their own Speaker of the House Boehner threw up his hands in resignation, and quit the political scene altogether. It’s not that they can’t get along with Democrats, Washington Republicans can’t even get along with their Tea Party branch of conservatives. Time and again Trump has said that Ted Cruz is unable to work with his fellow congressmen and women.

The battle that ensued within the confines of Capitol Hill in D.C. has erupted onto the streets of small town USA. It was long overdue. The Tea Party, backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, was going to eventually overwhelm the Republican establishment. It was just waiting for the right man in the form of a billionaire whose agenda paralleled theirs in returning America to…a patriarchal, isolationist society, favoring white men.

If Trump is denied the presidency by his Party’s hierarchy, he threatens anarchy on the part of his followers. So it seems the Republicans have opened their own Pandora’s Box and are unable to contain the tornado it unleashed. Like a Jack-in-the-box, Trump keeps bobbing up and down avoiding the poisoned arrows hurtling his way. As a boomerang returns from whence it came, Republicans never figured on having opportunist Trump bum a free ride to the highest office in the land and the most powerful position in the world…at their expense. All the while…

The thought that Democrats are voting for Trump so that he’ll get elected, only to be trounced by Hillary Clintonin the general election is as foolhardy, I think, as gambling on…roosters…or pit bulls….or leaping frogs. I know my analogy may raise a few eyebrows and incur a few chuckles, but that’s how disbelieving I am that folks would gamble on something as important as voting for the most powerful leader in the world. Taking the most precious privilege we have as American citizens and tossing it up in the air to have it fall where it may…is as ludicrous to me as purposefully voting for Trump. Makes me wonder if these supposed, well-meaning Democrats are merely attempting to camouflage their desire to actually have the candidate win.

Democrats for Trump.

Sounds like an oxymoron. It’s been done before, but this time, with this candidate, I just can’t swallow the idea.

I guess it just raises the bar, yet again, for female candidate Clinton to have to roll up her sleeves and prepare for the mother-of-all slug fests with the king of mud slinging. How low will he go? That’ll be the million dollar question, or should I say Trump’s $10 billion dollar question. The man has no manners, no filter, no morals. Although he makes up for it with the biggest ego ever to go viral.

Hopefully, if the presidential match does come down to the…lady and the beast…Americans will be listening for the message and not let the messenger get carried away posting his own selfies to instagram and twitter.

This is not a reality TV show. Too many lives are at stake to gamble on who’ll win and who’ll place. Trump doesn’t play to place. He’s going to call in all his favors to make sure he carries the Oval Office. His ego is on the line.

Going forward, we all have to live with the FrankenTrump created by the Republicans…establishment and fanatics alike. What we don’t need is…

I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican, although I have liberal tendencies born of a childhood bordering on poverty. I know what it’s like to wear Salvation Army hand-me-downs, and share meals with orphans at a home run by Maryknoll nuns. I’ve been fortunate, however, to have “pulled myself up by the bootstraps” and married a man who has done the same. For us the stars were all aligned, shining good fortune down upon us. Not so with millions of others in America…and around the world. As one of my brothers liked to say of me, and perhaps it’s true…I’m a bleeding-heart liberal. And he didn’t mean it kindly. He’s hard-core conservative.

While I have voted for Republican presidents, like George W. Bush, I’ve never felt in sync with the party. I get that its members are about preserving the status quo and each and everyone earning his own keep. What I don’t get is how dogmatic Republicans are about their principles. It’s as though all poor people are guilty of abusing the system and must therefore prove themselves innocent. Why they can’t do just that seems beyond comprehension to dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. If folks find themselves in unfortunate circumstances, then they should get themselves out however they can and not look to society to do it for them.

Democrats aren’t without their own prejudices and faults. However what I can align with is their concern for the welfare of all people, including the less fortunate. There isn’t an automatic assumption that they are slovenly people living off the fat of the land, without first paying their dues. Yes, there are those who take advantage of welfare, but those who don’t shouldn’t be condemned alongside those who do.

My mom, a widow with 9 children, was never on welfare. She worked hard and took help whenever it was offered. If she was ashamed, she never showed it. What I did witness, however, was her compassion for others who shared her plight. She shared what little she had. A lesson that has remained with me to this day. Whether or not it comes more easily for folks who are themselves outcasts from society, I don’t know. I only know that having been there, I could never turn my back on those still stuck in the muck of poverty.

Life is complicated. There are no easy solutions to its complexities. All we can do is the best we can do, given our individual circumstances. And the only compass we have to guide us through life is a moral one. And at the risk of sounding like a “bleeding heart liberal,”…whether we like it or not, we’re all in this together. There’s no escaping to another planet, anytime soon that is. So rather than run from one another, we’ve got to figure out how to make this place where we all live…work for the good of all. Sooner or later the have-nots are going to overtake the haves, and help themselves to what they’ve long been denied.

So…if children see Trump bullying his way into the presidency, then why bother listening to adults moralize against bullying? Bullying gets the job done. Trump is proof-positive, and thousands of voters are rooting the bully on to a knock-out victory over any and all contenders.

So…if we see an uptick in bullying…on the playground…and on the internet…adults who voted Trump president have only themselves to thank. They have upended recent efforts to halt suicides by victims who were no match for the bullies.

So…if the would-be president is a bully, why shouldn’t children aspire to be like Trump…a bully? There’s no arguing the point, unless voters want to argue that the end justifies the means.

So…if the end justifies the means…what’s wrong with bullying…if it gets a kid what he wants in the end? It’s getting Trump what he wants. Remember, he swears he could shoot someone and his voters would still support him.

So…if mentally ill kids feel victimized by bullies and decide to retaliate by taking their frustrations out in mass shootings, then we’ll be right where we are today. No better, but headed for a lot worse, that’s for sure.

So…for adults supporting Trump for president, it would follow that they approve of his bullying tactics. And because they do, it stands to reason that these same adults could not hold it against children who bully. Unless, of course, these Trump supporters are proposing that children “do as they say and not as they do.” That old double standard…that’s as old as bullying.

True, it’s what they’re about no matter the topic. Ratings drive the media. Whatever sells…is news. And Trump’s been selling. Big time! So he’s always the headlines. The rest of the candidates have been orbiting around his sun, as far as the media is concerned.

So why would the media kill the “goose that lays the golden egg?” If Trump is elected president, the media is as much to thank as his herd of loyal followers.

Listening to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews…normally on the Democratic sideline…one gets the feeling that even he is rooting for Trump. Matthews likes that Trump is “having fun” during the presidential campaign. Great fun. At whose expense? Certainly not Matthews, nor the media at large. They’ll all be rolling in dough when the media ratings soar with Trump in the White House. There’ll be no lack of headline-grabbing news every time Trump bullies up to the podium.

Trump has matched wits with the media, ensnaring them into his web of open deception. Willing victims, the media have afforded Trump free publicity, even aiding and abetting in his lampooning the other candidates. The voting population-at-large would not be as tuned into Trump’s shenanigans if it weren’t for 24/7 coverage of his antics by CNN and the other major networks. They’re making a good living off of Trump and in return, he is reaping the massive exposure and raking in the votes.

If you’ve ever watched TheHousewives of Beverly Hills…Orange County…NYC…or NJ…you know those folks are larger than life. They’re not the real deal. They’re like the super-sized balloons flying overhead during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. All blown up with…mega-sized eyeballs, lips, hair and bodies.

The same applies to Donald Trump. Followers enamored of him imagine that as President of the United States, he will fire and hire employees exactly as he did on The Apprentice. That’s the individual they want running the country. They further fantasize that President Trump will stop illegal immigrants and incoming Muslims singlehandedly. They don’t ask how. They just know he’ll do it because he says so.

Trump’s presence in the presidential arena replicates exactly what has happened in Congress. Moderate Republicans and their extremist counterparts cannot see eye to eye. A President Trump would tip the balance of power in favor of the Tea Partiers. Where we escaped the same fate with a President Palin, we will now come face to face with an egomaniac far more maniacal and lacking in knowledge than Sarah ever was.

If Trump doesn’t like Mexicans and Muslims, how will he govern those who already live in this country as American citizens? Will he backtrack on his inflammatory rhetoric? Probably not enough to satisfy those groups. And it’s unlikely that the extremists who devour the “red meat” Trump holds out in front of them on a daily basis are going to allow their candidate to renig on his promise to cleanse the population of racial and religious misfits.

Today Trump’s focus and those of his Tea Party followers are upon the Mexicans and Muslims, is it possible that tomorrow they might want to distance themselves from Blacks? Asians? Jews? Catholics? Who knows. Once extremists gain momentum, America could be facing its own Hitler and the evil he wrought upon millions. What happened then in a land far removed, could happen here.

Like a spoiled child screaming for attention, Donald Trump will say anything that enters his 5-year-old mind. It’s as though he’s standing in the middle of the kindergarten playground, spewing venomous, childish dribble hoping to attract like-minded bullies. Trouble is he can’t let up on his ridiculous rants for fear he’ll lose his attraction.

Now that he’s acquired a national audience, Trump hopes to hang onto it at all costs. Sanity be damned, as he shows his insanity for ridding the world of all he deems incompatible with his lifestyle. And those who are riding his coattails have no clue where Trump’s insatiable appetite for the absurd will take them.

So now Trump wants to ban Muslims along with Mexicans from making their home in the U.S.

Trump mouths off without consideration for what any of these groups contribute to the fabric of American society. They serve in the military. They work at menial jobs…jobs most of us would consider only as a last resort, and maybe not even then. They work in healthcare and insurance offices and government agencies, providing necessary services for the rest of the populace. Some folks within these groups have even become entrepeneurs…gardeners and landscapers…hair stylists and boutique owners…to name only a few.

Donald Trump is a big jerk. How his children…wife and ex-wives…can stand the ugliness he exudes every time he speaks is unfathomable. Yes, he is speaking for the extreme, right-wing faction of conservatives who have remained pretty much on the sidelines. Until now. With Trump as their leader they are now publicly owning up to all the prejudices they have harbored all their lives…dating back generations.

Trump and others who are fanning the fiery flames of prejudice…in all of its forms…care not for the health and well-being of America and its relevance to the rest of the world. They are isolationists who think only of themselves and those near and dear to them. They’d just as soon declare war first, and figure out who the innocents among the dead are afterwards. If they even care.

We know who Trump is, but have you ever heard of Schlicter? I hadn’t a clue until he popped up on CNN today in defense of Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. Actually, Trump also defended his fellow Republican candidate for not being politically correct, and telling it like it is. They all agree on one thing…the second amendment, the right to bear arms.

Carson said about the Umqua Community College shooting…and continues to say…

“Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me but he can’t get us all,'” Carson said.

Wow!

Okay. Maybe in our wildest fantasies as super humanoids we might automatically go there…take a bullet and die like heroes. In fact one brave soul did do just that.

Chris Mintz, a 30-year old veteran who served 10 years in the army wasn’t “…going to stand around and watch something this horrific happen,” according to his cousin, Derek Bourgois of North Carolina. He went on to say of Mintz ” ‘He was on the wrestling team and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically.’ “

Carson had not heard of Mintz’s heroism when asked by a reporter.

It’s so easy for Carson, Schlicter or Trump to say that the Umqua victims should have taken Mintz down. Are these men so sure they would have done exactly that…in the heat of the moment…when your brain is still in shock, unable to make any sense of the situation, knowing in seconds you may be dead? How do you process all that information with a gun pointing in your direction? Unless you’re trained to fight back from the get-go, as Mintz was, flight is usually the first thing you think of.

Flight or fight? It’s not fight or flight.

Our brains are primed to flee. Fighting is not an automatic for those of us in normal daily living mode. It might be different if our children were in the line of fire, then we might go into mama bear/papa bear mode. The same could be said for a husband willing to die to save his family. But strangers barely connecting before a mass shooting? Especially students in a classroom who are sitting ducks.

It’s for sure these men who throw words around just because they’ve got an appreciative audience, would eat their own words if their children or wives were those same sitting ducks. I can’t imagine Carson thinking…”I hope my son (he has 3) volunteers to intercept a madman trying to kill others.”

In an online article, “What The Hell Is An Angry Conservative Suppose To Do?,” Kurt Schlicter, a conservative commentator, derides the various and sundry Republican candidates for president. Of Carson, Schlicter says…

The outsiders shouldn’t be president. Sorry. Dr. Carson is a nice man who has no instinct for ripping out his opponents’ jugular. I want to hear some liberal womyn lamenting the crushing of our enemies, Doc, but you’d probably go and comfort them.

And of Trump, Shlicter says…

And then there’s Donald Trump, whose embarrassing debate performance started the trend of people saying, “You know, it was fun for a while but this guy has become tiresome.”

Trump has the aggression – that’s the only thing I like about him – but it’s also the only thing he has. The polls are showing that his novelty is wearing off; people can only deal with so much whining. He’ll always have a hardcore set of minions, but for the first time in weeks I don’t think we have to seriously contemplate the notion of Ivanka the veep.

So what makes Schlicter an expert on presidential candidates…or for that matter, politics?

He is a successful Los Angeles trial lawyer, a veteran with a masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a former stand-up comic. …Kurt rose to the rank of Army colonel (Infantry), commanded a cavalry recon squadron, and served in Desert Storm and Kosovo as well as multiple disaster operations. He lives in the South Bay area of Los Angeles where his hobbies include red meat and red wine.

I think it’s what he said at the end of his article on being an angry conservative…that makes me dislike Schlicter intensely.

Which leaves Carly. She seems ticked off. I like that. She kicks tail. I like that too. She can put together a coherent sentence. Finally. I don’t despise her. That’s something new for a GOP candidate. And, best of all, I think the elite distrusts her and Hillary fears her – in fact, she could mop the floor with the Orange Pantsuit Lady.

Yeah, maybe Carly.

Maybe.

But if not her, and if there’s no one else, then I’m still ready to burn it all down.

Like millions, I was tuned in to the Republican presidential debates yesterday. Although I’m an Independent, I tend to align myself with the Democrats. Nevertheless, I can be swayed to vote Conservative if I’m persuaded. And I might just be when I vote for the President of the United States in 2016.

Hillary Clinton, although experienced and smart, is packaged wrong. And I’m not referring to her looks. There’s something about her that’s unappealing. She talks and talks and talks. I wish she could be more succinct, like Fiorina. Unlike Clinton’s voice, which at times sounds whiny, Fiorina’s sounds strong and commanding. She got my attention yesterday. I wanted to hear what she had to say. In fact hers was the only voice I did want to hear.

The men all sounded alike…droning on and on without really capturing my attention. Yes, like most others watching I’m sure, I did stop to hear what Trump had to say. However it was only to see what else he got wrong. Listening to him was like listening to girlfriends vent…without really contributing substantively to the political conversation. Anyone can say…”I think I’d get along well with Putin” or “There aren’t many who would know the names of the leaders of the Islamic militant groups” or “I’d build a big wall.”

Someone asking for my presidential vote has got to be able to “talk the talk, and walk the walk.” In my opinion, Trump neither talks presidential, nor walks presidential.

Of course the CNN pundits were off and running today, picking apart every word, every nuance, every gesture of each Republican running for president. A nice position to be in…getting paid, handsomely I might add…to give a blow by blow commentary of the battle being waged among those committed to serving their constituents. Can you tell? I’m not a huge fan of the mainstream media.

Marco Rubio and Lindsay Graham seemed to edge out their competitors, according to the pundits. Rubio, because he was able to remain focused upon his own experiences, both personal and professional. Graham, because he never wavered in his commitment to wage a ground war on Isis were he to become president. I wouldn’t vote for either man. Rubio, because he would represent his constituency to the exclusion of those not politically aligned with him. That would exclude me. Graham, because he is so backward thinking. What worked in the past, probably won’t work in the future. And waging war in Syria would probably involve Russia, which could mean we’d finally have ourselves a Third World War. Now that would be hitting the reset button…big time. With Mother Nature already waging war on us…we might never recover.

I agree with the pundits that New Jersey’s Governer Christie probably “shot himself in the foot” over the bridge incident. According to Wikipedia…

I’m sure it also didn’t help when he was caught canoodling with Democratic Obama during the president’s visit to survey the damage wrought upon Christie’s state by Hurricane Sandy.

Former Governor Jeb Bush, not as colorful as his brother, the former president, will also not get my vote. And if I remember correctly, I voted for George W…twice! What was I thinking? Most likely Bush’s cowboy persona got everyone with his ” let’s hog tie ’em and shoot ’em up” mentality. And we’re still paying for it in Iraq. By comparison, Jeb has zero persona. None. Zilch. I think he’s a nice guy, especially when he tried to get Trump to apologize to Columba about the nastiness he directed her way. But as Trump later said…Jeb didn’t continue to press Trump for an apology. The request just kind of…dissipated. So how would Jeb deal with Putin? I wouldn’t want to find out.

Dr. Carson. A nice, intelligent-sounding man. Seems he might be better at schmoozing with Congress than Obama, who has no stomach or skill for it. I liked Carson, but I wouldn’t vote for him either. He’s too laid back for me. Too easy-going to be President of the most powerful country in the world. I couldn’t see him making split second decisions, like taking out Osama bin Laden as Obama did.

President Fiorina. Has a nice ring to it. I’ll just have to hone up on her background. Now that would be a debate for which the entire world would come to a standstill.

Fiorina vs. Clinton.

And in my humble opinion, either one would be a worthy contender to become…

That’s what we’re talking about if Donald Trump succeeds President Obama.

God help us.

Enemies of the President have to admit the man has class.

Obama doesn’t scream his disdain on national television when he doesn’t take kindly to something someone is asking. Yes, he’ll say “You should know better,” in a professorial tone of voice. Whether or not the object of his disappointment is duly chastised or not depends upon the health of that person’s backbone. Trump on the other hand instills enough fear in the object of his rage, that they can’t wait to get the hell out of his sight. Which suits The Donald just fine.

“You’re fired!”

So maybe his American subjects would be able to sidestep President Trump’s wrath…with a lot of fancy footwork, I might add. And maybe the American media would have a field day dissecting The Donald’s every faux pas, not to mention the abundance of material late night talk show hosts would have at their disposal. And it’s not too far-fetched to think that reality TV would be a frequent guest of Trump’s White House. Perhaps they’d even move into the East Wing, cozying up to the new First Lady of Trump-dom, Melania.

Recent occupants of the White House have, for the most part, adopted a sense of quiet decorum. Yes, some have had their pecadilloes aired in public. However as we all know, that’s the nature of the beast…politics. To imagine, however, that President Trump would mind his p’s and q’s is like putting a sack over a parrot’s head. The Donald’s dyed, golden crest just wouldn’t stand for it! Or it’s more likely that it couldn’t…lay down for it.

“You’re fired!” Trump would squawk at the top of his lungs.

Americans know all too well that The Donald suffers from…foot-in-mouth disease. We give him wide berth to go on spewing his nastiness. He, meanwhile, remains totally oblivious to us and our small, inconsequential lives. Now that he’s set sights on the White House, Trump realizes he needs our votes. However once he moves in he’ll dump us with…

“You’re fired!”

When it comes to global affairs, President Trump’s style won’t change. He’ll puff up his chest like the proud rooster he is and blast everyone in sight with a reverberating…

“You’re fired!”

Trouble is The Donald’s screams will fall on deaf ears, for the world won’t tolerate another Hitler. We shouldn’t either. In fact, we should…

…said Donald Trump in a clip from his interview with Anderson Cooper airing tonight on CNN. In the same breath, Trump mumbled something about his expertise at “playing the game.”

Those Americans reflected in the polls as favoring Trump’s no-nonsense style, hear what they want to hear. The rest of what Trump says lands on deaf ears. They’re not tuning in to his mumbo jumbo about not knowing what might have happened 35 years ago concerning the use of illegal immigrants in his real estate ventures.

Trump is definitely of the mindset…do as I say…not as I do. Unless he tells you to do it, that is.

Imagine The Donald as President of the United States of America. Rest assured it will be a dictatorship of which he and his subjects will be mightily proud. He will make no apologies for sending your sons into battle to teach our supposed enemies a lesson.

Trump probably sees himself as The Duke, John Wayne’s, successor. No doubt about it. In fact, Trump probably feels he has The Duke beat…by several billions.

A president who runs the country like a “dog-eat-dog” capitalistic empire, Trump would either alienate the rest of the world…or have them eating out of his hands…or both. It’s most likely the majority would smile to his face, making false promises to cooperate, all the while bad-mouthing him for his lack of empathy with those not in his stratosphere…99% of Americans.

Each president has had his failings. I fear Trump’s predisposition toward King Midas’ fantasy throne, however, would be America’s undoing. With his blonde hair waving in the breeze, he might provide just the red flag needed by our enemies to have them running like the bulls in Spain…